LOS ANGELES -- A nationally known professional tennis referee charged with the coffee-cup killing of her husband gave police a DNA sample Wednesday after dropping her opposition to the procedure.

Lois Ann Goodman, 70, who is charged with beating her husband to death with the cup last April, was accompanied by about 25 supporters, including friends and relatives, when she appeared briefly in court for a pretrial hearing.

A judge scheduled Goodman's next hearing for Nov. 8.

In the meantime, defense attorneys say they have a huge amount of evidence and court documents provided by prosecutors to review before a trial is scheduled.

Goodman was arrested in August just before she was to referee at match at the U.S. Open.

Her attorneys say her 80-year-old husband was the victim of a freak accident.

Authorities initially believed Alan Goodman fell down stairs at home while she was away but later decided it was homicide. Prosecutors now believe he was struck 10 times on the head and stabbed with the broken cup.

The couple were married nearly 50 years and have three grown children.

Not sure what DNA is supposed to prove. The murder occurred in her home -- her DNA should be all over her home, her mugs, her bed, her husband, etc.

Quote:

Her attorneys say her 80-year-old husband was the victim of a freak accident.

can't understand why her lawyers would advise her to stick with this ridiculous story. I didn't do it, I wasn't there, I don't know what happened. Period. The defendant is not obliged to provide an alternate theory of what happened.

you can't arrest someone for telling a silly story or not crying enough. It's not evidence. Probably took a couple of weeks to process the body and analyze everything that was taken from it (apparently, bits of the coffee cup). Then to interview everyone they knew, go through correspondences, emails, etc. I don't know what the deal is with her alibi (that she was working that day) but anyone could have come in and killed him. And her strange behaviour and story could be due to mild dementia. You can't jump to conclusions.

08-23-2012 09:43 PM

Pirata.

Re: Line judge charged with murder :o

Quote:

Lois "Lolo" Goodman, 70, was arrested in New York Tuesday for the April murder of her husband, 80-year-old Alan, and now documents from the investigation point to a possible love triangle, as well as reveal gory details about the man's death.

A search warrant affidavit indicates Mrs. Goodman “was communicating with a male individual through the Internet,” reports the NY Daily News, noting that police found evidence the woman was looking to end a relationship--they just aren't clear with which man:

“The content of the email suggests that Lois was terminating a relationship and that alternate sleeping arrangements should be made in Los Angeles,” Detective Jeffrey Briscoe of the Los Angeles Police Department wrote in a May 16 search warrant request to a judge.

Alan Goodman was found dead in the couple's Woodland Hills home on April 17.

The NY Daily News also reports that a police source told them Lois Goodman "chatted with cops about her career and Andre Agassi as his gore-spattered body sat upstairs in their bed." She also allegedly complained about her late husband to authorities responding to the scene.

Details about the injuries sustained by Alan Goodman are rather gruesome; Lois Goodman allegedly bashed him in the head repeatedly with a coffee mug until the mug broke, and then stabbed him with the jagged end of the handle. The coroner reportedly found ceramic shards embedded in the man's scalp.

Lois Goodman said she thought her husband had fallen down the stairs, however the LAPD's investigation was categorized as "suspicious" since they could not rule out foul play.

Neighbors told various news sources they were surprised Goodman was arrested for her husband's murder, but weren't necessarily shocked, according to City News Service, noting that Goodman had her carpets professionally cleaned after her husband's death, and that she had seemed somewhat unruffled by the sudden loss. The affidavit paints her as a "cool and calculating liar."

oh god i've seen that lady at some matches. feel bad for her and obviously her husband! She's way too old to be thrown in jail now. Surely the guilt alone is sufficient punishment for someone that old

08-23-2012 12:47 AM

Pirata.

Re: Line judge charged with murder :o

Old LA Times interview with her

Quote:

Lois Goodman has received dirty looks from John McEnroe. She has been the target of Jim Courier's sexist remarks and has heard enough bickering among the world's best tennis players to lose track of who said what.

And the 52-year-old Calabasas resident loves it.

Goodman, an avid tennis fan for most of her life, got a job 15 years ago that allowed her to stand on the court with the world's top players. She became an umpire.

Through the years she has seen the sport's biggest names up close: Jimmy Connors, McEnroe, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova. And the list goes on.

Last week she worked at the Virginia Slims of Manhattan Beach, where she officiated about five matches a day at the Manhattan Country Club.

Early in the week she served as a linesman for a first-round match between this year's Wimbledon champion, Conchita Martinez, and two-time NCAA singles champion Lisa Raymond of the University of Florida.

No biggie. Goodman has served as an official at the U.S. Open and Australian Open for eight years and the 1991 Davis Cup in Hawaii. She also works at the men's annual Volvo tournament at UCLA and is a regular at NCAA matches. She does about 15 tournaments a year.

"It's exciting," Goodman said. "This is my favorite sport and I'm out there rubbing shoulders with the best players. There's no real way to describe it.

"Working (the Virginia Slims) is great. The players are wonderful and they're courteous and they appreciate good officiating."

But that isn't always the case. Goodman also deals with athletes who make rude comments and fans who often taunt her.

Goodman won't mention the name, but said a top male player once told her she should be "at home having babies."

"A lot of men players feel women should not be calling men's matches," Goodman said. "Jim Courier has made no secret about the fact that he doesn't like women umpires.

"He has said publicly that women should not call lines in men's matches. Well, right after he said that he got almost all women umpires in one of his matches and he noticed it and said, 'Look at all the lady umpires. This must be on my behalf.' That was fun."

Many of the men, however, are polite and respectful. Goodman says Pete Sampras, the world's No. 1 player, is always that way.

"He's wonderful," she said. "He is always quiet and he really doesn't show much emotion. It's great because with a lot of the men, you just never know what they're going to do."

Even Stefan Edberg, the mellow Swede who rarely displays emotion, made a sarcastic gesture after losing a match in which Goodman called him for foot-faulting three times.

"He turned to me and bowed a couple of times, waving his hands like, 'Thank you very much. I lost because of you,' " Goodman said. "You just have to laugh at things like that. We're just out there doing our job."

Goodman says women's matches are easier to officiate. They are usually cordial and respectful, and their method of disputing a call is mild compared to most men, she says.

"You look at players like Chris Evert and Martina, that's class with a capital C," Goodman said. "They are just gracious. With most women we never have any problems because they are more mature."

Fans usually aren't, Goodman says, and they tend to side against officials, though on one occasion the crowd agreed with her.

Andre Agassi had served what he thought was an ace. Goodman called it out.

"He carried on and complained and complained," Goodman said. "Then he came back to the line where I was standing and asked the crowd behind me how they saw the ball. Everyone yelled that the ball was out and he got real mad but he came up to me and said, 'I stand corrected. I apologize.'

"I wanted to smile but we're not even allowed to. We're supposed to have a deadpan face."

Umpires can't interact with players or fans and they must get permission from a supervisor before speaking to the media.

One night, however, at the end of an exhibition match between Navratilova and Connors at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Goodman broke policy.

As the match proceeded, several unruly fans behind her kept saying her calls were so off she must have cataracts.

"Well, at the end I looked up at them and said, 'Not only can I see well, I can hear well too!' They were very embarrassed," Goodman said. "They couldn't believe I heard them or that I would say anything."